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Manfrotto Tag

12 Oct

Posted at 08:26h in Dick's Rant by

This may come as a shock to some readers, but technology has advanced in the last little while, and it is no longer necessary to go home and use the telephone on the hall stand to ring through to Central. You need not have two pennies or a sixpence to go to the telephone box at the end of the street. And it is possible to infuriate most of population of the country from the comfort of your desk or the convenience of your motor car. Tweets and memes are available 24/7 to do this*. Voila - the mobile phone. You can dial up anyone without using a dial and send them pictures of yourself in the local sports hall toilets for a mere thousand dollars a year. You can yell at people across the country while you are inching forward on the Mitchell Freeway in peak hour. You can send mis-spelled messages to people at any hour of the day and night. No-one need be at peace ever again...

10 Oct

Posted at 07:29h in Dick's Rant by

In Melbourne you can get a cocktail at a moderately fancy bar. If you look moderately fancy as well, you might not even have to pay for it. If you look like the writer of this column you have to pay for it. If you go into Camera Electronic in Perth you can pick up a Joby Micro Hybrid Tripod. It's the same amount of money but it contains far better value - there is no water in it...

13 Sep

Posted at 08:51h in Dick's Rant by

The Muraro " Heavy Compact Small Stand " looked like a pretty simple box to bring home. It was sealed and I expected to find a Manfrotto look-alike inside - Boy, was I surprised. To give you a comparison I have included my Manfrotto compact stand in some of the images today. Not trying to play one wholesaler off against another, but there are some interesting design features here. This is the two stands folded up. The Manfrotto is the smaller one, but it isn't all that much smaller. It's a great accessory for taking to dance shows - I put a Hahnel Captur receiver and a Fujifilm EF-X500 flash on it and set it out some way from myself. It sometimes gets a more central position in front of the audience than I do but is unobtrusive enough to sit out there all night. I do sandbag it as the legs are short. But look what happens when you fold out the Muraro in comparison. About 6 inches more height and a great deal wider base for the legs. That's as wide...

08 Aug

Posted at 08:09h in Dick's Rant by

If there was ever a product category that calls forth innovative design, it's the table-top tripod. It would be crass to name competitor's products in a post about a Manfrotto design, but if you go back over the years in this column you'll see at least five other charming little things - one of which has a design history stretching back over 50 years. And a price tag that looks like a government contract...

16 Mar

Posted at 00:34h in News by

Not the nanny state - that's a different ketle of fish. We're talking about minor equipmant and accessories that we can use for major photography.Light stands, like porridge,  come in three sizes; too big, too small, and Goldilocks. Errr...

13 Mar

Posted at 01:18h in News by

How many of us get a tool kit with our new digital cameras these days? In the old film days it was common for the box containing the SLR or rangefinder camera to have a complete tool pouch including a stilson wrench, set of spanners, lens brace, film jack, and a bottle of optical antiseptic. In the case of some Kodak cameras you got a 8-round clip of .30-06 ball ammunition and a toothbrush.I think we are being done - nowadays you're lucky to get a battery charger and a squidgy little lens cloth with some. Even the instruction manuals are on a CD...

10 Jan

Posted at 22:53h in News by

Those of you who followed the news from Photokina in 2016 - sent back in part by the management team of Camera Electronic and in part by the press departments of major manufacturers - will have been attracted to the new cameras and lenses shown. Lots of you will have zeroed in on new offerings and are starting to make vague plans to get something fresh...

08 Dec

Posted at 02:21h in News by

There's a dramatic statement that will bring a cheer to the lips of the wholesalers - praise indeed for this Manfrotto Befree tripod. They are going to have to be careful when they say the name - it is the MVKBFR-LVE - but it is well worth the attention of the video shooter.Most of the tripods that have been reviewed in this column are intended for still camera use - from big studio jobs to tiny travel models. They may feature three-way or ball heads but they rarely pan and tilt in a way that would help a video maker. This Manfrotto product is different.Oh, it has many of the standard Manfrotto features - it folds back upon the centre column to save carrying space and it has four-tube extension legs with lever locks. The leg angles are dictated by swivel levers at the top that allow several angles of splay. There is a hook on the centre column to allow you to put a weight on it to further steady the assembly. So far, so normal.The part that departs is...